Pigs are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the familySuidae. .The name hog most commonly refers to the domestic pig (Sus domestica) in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the wild boar.^All swine commonly used in research and testing are Sus scrofa domestics, whether they are farm or miniature breeds.

.Swine is a collective noun generally used to describe pigs as a group rather than an individual, however it may often be implied in a pejorative manner to any living being expressing pig-like behaviour.^The characteristics that have led to the use of swine over other species for these models are related to the anatomic and physiologic characteristics described above.

.With around 2 billion on the planet, domestic pigs are also by far the most numerous pig species.^The kidneys of the pig are more like humans in anatomy and function than most other species of animals.

Contents

Description and behavior

.A pig has a snout for a nose, small eyes, and a small tail, which may be curly, kinked, or straight.^Influenza viruses may also be spread when a person touches respiratory droplets on another person or an object and then touches their own mouth, nose, or eyes (or someone else’s mouth, nose, or eyes) before washing their hands.

It has a thick body, short legs, and coarse hair. There are four toes on each foot, with the two large middle toes used for walking.[3]

Breeding occurs throughout the year in the tropics, but births peak around rainy seasons. .A female pig can become pregnant at around 8-18 months of age.^(And, they had not been around any female pigs.

^Pigs raised for meat in North America are usually slaughtered at about 6 months of age, when they are still juveniles.

Pigs: The Underestimated Animal | The Humane Society of the United States18 September 2009 12:012 UTCwww.hsus.org [Source type: Academic]

She will then go into estrus every 21 days if not bred. .Male pigs become sexually active at 8-10 months of age.^Frädrich (1974) reported that European wild boar (males) usually cannot mate until they are 4 to 5 years old due to competition with other males, even though they reach sexual maturity at 8 to 10 months.

[5] After the young are weaned, two or more families may come together until the next mating season.

Pigs do not have functional sweat glands,[6] so pigs cool themselves using water or mud during hot weather. They also use mud as a form of sunscreen to protect their skin from sunburn. Mud also provides protection against flies and parasites.[5]

Domesticated pigs are commonly raised as livestock by farmers for meat (called pork), as well as for leather. Their bristly hairs are also used for brushes. .Some breeds of pig, such as the Asian pot-bellied pig, are kept as pets.^The Vietnamese pot-bellied pig: Anesthetic friend or foe?

Diet and foraging

.Pigs are omnivores, which means that they consume both plants and animals.^Although pigs subsist primarily on plant matter, [60] , [61] , [62] they are omnivores and supplement their diets with earthworms, insects, amphibians, reptiles, and rodents, and can consume carrion and may engage in scavenger behavior as well.

Pigs: The Underestimated Animal | The Humane Society of the United States18 September 2009 12:012 UTCwww.hsus.org [Source type: Academic]

^If animals eat contaminated plants or animals, most of the lead that they eat will pass through their bodies.

Public Health Statement for Lead - Encyclopedia of Earth14 January 2010 19:52 UTCwww.eoearth.org [Source type: FILTERED WITH BAYES]

^Carnivores or omnivores can get their calcium from animals or, in the latter case, also from plants.

.Pigs will scavenge and have been known to eat any kind of food, including dead insects, worms, tree bark, rotting carcasses, garbage, and even other pigs.^Eating a wide variety of foods, including five servings of fruits and vegetables daily and plenty of whole grains, helps to ensure an adequate intake of magnesium.

^As an example, ascorbic acid is never isolated in nature, but occurs in food molecularly bonded to other food elements including bioflavonoids, proteins, carbohydrates and lipids and known as vitamin C. .

In the wild, they are foraging animals, primarily eating leaves, grasses, roots, fruits and flowers. Occasionally while in captivity, pigs may eat their own young if they become severely stressed.

.A typical pig has a large head with a long snout which is strengthened by a special prenasal bone and by a disk of cartilage in the tip.^The brain is relatively large with structures typical of those of other species.

[4].The snout is used to dig into the soil to find food and is a very sensitive sense organ.^Like a cat's whiskers, a pig's snout provides the animal with heightened senses to navigate and interact with the environment, and is especially designed for rooting in the ground in search of food.

Pigs: The Underestimated Animal | The Humane Society of the United States18 September 2009 12:012 UTCwww.hsus.org [Source type: Academic]

^Magnesium citrate can be very laxative, but some people find this useful if they have chronic constipation.

Domestic pigs

Pigs have been domesticated since ancient times in the Old World. .Archeological evidence suggests that pigs were being managed in the wild in a way similar to the way they are managed by some modern New Guineans from wild boar as early as 13,000–12,700 BP in the Near East in the Tigris Basin.^Nitrous oxide constricts epicardial coronary arteries in pigs: evidence suggesting inhibitory effects on the endothelium.

[17].Remains of pigs have been dated to earlier than 11,400 BP in Cyprus that must have been introduced from the mainland which suggests domestication in the adjacent mainland by then.^Domestic farm breeds have larger litters, usually of 8-12 pigs, than miniature pigs which typically have litters of 4-6.

Pigs were brought to southeastern North America from Europe by Hernando de Soto and other early Spanish explorers. Pigs are particularly valued in China and on certain oceanic islands, where their self-sufficiency allows them to be turned loose, although the practice is not without its drawbacks (see Environmental impact).

The domestic pig (Sus scrofa domesticus) is usually given the scientific nameSus scrofa, although some authors call it S. domesticus, reserving S. scrofa for the wild boar. It was domesticated approximately 5,000 to 7,000 years ago. Their coats are coarse and bristly. They are born brownish colored and tend to turn more grayish colored with age. The upper canines form sharp distinctive tusks that curve outward and upward. Compared to other artiodactyles, their head is relatively long, pointed, and free of warts. .Their head and body length ranges from 900-1,800 mm and can weigh 50-350 kg.^Domestic breeds typically reach 100 kg by 4 months of age and miniature breeds typically range from 25-50 kg at the same age.

Pigs are intelligent and can be trained to perform numerous simple tasks and tricks. .Recently, they have enjoyed a measure of popularity as house pets, particularly the dwarf breeds.^We had a conversation with a trucking company recently and they spoke of measures that they have put in place to reduce fuel consumption.

Pigs in religion

In Nordic Mythology, Gullinbursti ("Gold-Bristle" or "Gold-Mane") was Freyr's golden boar, created by the dwarves Brokk and Sindri as part of a challenge. His shining fur is said to fill the sky, trees, and sea with light.

In ancient Egypt pigs were associated with Set, the rival to the sun god Horus. When Set fell into disfavor with the Egyptians, swineherds were forbidden to enter temples. According to Herodotus, swineherds were a kind of separate sect or caste, which only married among themselves. .Egyptians regarded pigs as unworthy sacrifices to their gods other than the Moon and Dionysus, to whom pigs were offered on the day of the full Moon.^The kidneys of the pig are more like humans in anatomy and function than most other species of animals.

.Herodotus states that, though he knew the reason why Egyptians abominated swine at their other feasts but they sacrificed them at this one; however, it was to him "not a seemly one for me to tell".[20]

In Hinduism the god Vishnu took the form of a boar varaha in order to save the Earth from a demon who had dragged it to the bottom of the sea.

In ancient Greece, a sow was an appropriate sacrifice to Demeter and had been her favorite animal since she had been the Great Goddess of archaic times.^Swine can not replace all other large animal models in biomedical research, however, they are at least as similar to humans for many types of studies which use species such as ruminants and dogs.

From the strict reading to the relevant Torah passage, pork is as forbidden as the flesh of any other unclean animal, no more and no less; in practice, however, abhorrence of pork is far stronger and emotional in traditional Jewish culture than that of other forbidden foods.

Environmental impacts

.Domestic pigs that have escaped from farms or were allowed to forage in the wild, and in some cases wild boars which were introduced as prey for hunting, have given rise to large populations of feral pigs in North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, and other areas where pigs are not native.^Domestic farm breeds have larger litters, usually of 8-12 pigs, than miniature pigs which typically have litters of 4-6.

Accidental or deliberate releases of pigs into countries or environments where they are an alien species have caused extensive environmental change. Their omnivorous diet, aggressive behaviour, and their feeding method of rooting in the ground all combine to severely alter ecosystems unused to pigs. .Pigs will even eat small animals and destroy nests of ground nesting birds.^Like a cat's whiskers, a pig's snout provides the animal with heightened senses to navigate and interact with the environment, and is especially designed for rooting in the ground in search of food.

Pigs: The Underestimated Animal | The Humane Society of the United States18 September 2009 12:012 UTCwww.hsus.org [Source type: Academic]

^The wild hogs prey on ground-nesting birds and small mammals and compete for food with native animals.

.Feral pigs like other introduced mammals are major drivers of extinction and ecosystem change.^There is likely to be a genetic component and other dietary, behavioral and hormonal factors also play a major part.

.They have been introduced into many parts of the world, and will damage crops and home gardens as well as potentially spreading disease.^Although virtually eliminated in North America and Western Europe because milk is fortified with vitamin D, it still occurs in many parts of the world.

.This results in habitat alteration, a change in plant succession and composition and a decrease in native fauna dependent on the original habitat.^The process includes restoring the land to its approximate original appearance by restoring topsoil and planting native grasses and ground covers.

Health issues

.Pigs harbour a range of parasites and diseases that can be transmitted to humans.^Serum and intestinal isotype antibody responses and correlates of protective immunity to human rotavirus in a gnotobiotic pig model of disease.

These include trichinosis, Taenia solium, cysticercosis, and brucellosis. Pigs are also known to host large concentrations of parasitic ascarid worms in their digestive tract.[22] The presence of these diseases and parasites is one of the reasons why pork meat should always be well cooked or cured before eating. Some religious groups that consider pork unclean refer to these issues as support for their views.[23]

Pigs are susceptible to bronchitis and pneumonia. .They have small lungs in relation to body size; for this reason, bronchitis or pneumonia can kill a pig quickly.^Lung mechanics with relation to pulmonary haemodynamics, gas exchange and extravascular lung water in mechanically ventilated endotoxaemic pigs.

[24].There is concern that pigs may allow animal viruses such as influenza or Ebola Reston to infect humans more easily.^The spontaneously hypercholesterolemic pig as an animal model of human hypercholesterolemia.

.Pigs can be aggressive and pig-induced injuries are relatively common in areas where pigs are reared or where they form part of the wild or feral fauna.^The time course of cardioprotection induced by GR79236, a selective adenosine A1-receptor agonist, in myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion injury in the pig.

.Pigs are ungulates native to Eurasia
collectively grouped under the genus Sus within the Suidae
family.^The collared peccary ( Pecari tajacu ), who are native to the southwestern United States, closely resemble pigs although they belong to the family Tayassuidae.

Pigs: The Underestimated Animal | The Humane Society of the United States18 September 2009 12:012 UTCwww.hsus.org [Source type: Academic]

^Pigs belong to the family Suidae, which includes the warthog ( Phacochoerus ) and bushpig ( Potamochoerus ) of Africa, the babirusa ( Babyrousa ) of Indonesia and the Eurasian wild boar ( Sus scrofa ), who is the ancestor of all domestic pigs.

Pigs: The Underestimated Animal | The Humane Society of the United States18 September 2009 12:012 UTCwww.hsus.org [Source type: Academic]

^The family Suidae also includes about 12 separate species of wild pig, most also classified in the genus Sus .

.They have been domesticated and raised as livestock by some
peoples for meat (called pork) as well as for leather.^Carrots, broccoli and sesame seeds, organically-grown well, are some of the richest plant foods in calcium, yet they do not have anything near the calcium levels that people are trying to take in through supplements.

Translated: You may see me, fat and shining,
with well-cared for hide,—...a hog from Epicurus' herd.^While I'm not going to eat meat ever, I will diligently take my supplements from here on out - I may even try that suggestion mentioned earlier about organic molasses too!

From Wikisource

Go, stalk the red deer o'er the heather
Ride, follow the fox if you can!
But, for pleasure and profit together,
Allow me the hunting of Man,--
The chase of the Human, the search for the Soul
To its ruin,--the hunting of Man.

The
Old Shikarri.

I believe the difference began in the matter of a horse, with a
twist in his temper, whom Pinecoffin sold to Nafferton and by whom
Nafferton was nearly slain. .There may have been other causes of
offence; the horse was the official stalking-horse.^Exposure to high levels of cadmium may cause certain cancers and other health problems.

Nafferton was
very angry; but Pinecoffin laughed and said that he had never
guaranteed the beast's manners. Nafferton laughed, too, though he
vowed that he would write off his fall against Pinecoffin if he
waited five years. Now, a Dalesman from beyond Skipton will forgive
an injury when the Strid lets a man live; but a South Devon man is
as soft as a Dartmoor bog. You can see from their names that
Nafferton had the race-advantage of Pinecoffin. He was a peculiar
man, and his notions of humor were cruel. He taught me a new and
fascinating form of shikar. He hounded Pinecoffin from Mithankot to
Jagadri, and from Gurgaon to Abbottabad up and across the Punjab, a
large province and in places remarkably dry. He said that he had no
intention of allowing Assistant Commissioners to "sell him pups,"
in the shape of ramping, screaming countrybreds, without making
their lives a burden to them.

Most Assistant Commissioners develop a bent for some special
work after their first hot weather in the country. The boys with
digestions hope to write their names large on the Frontier and
struggle for dreary places like Bannu and Kohat. The bilious ones
climb into the Secretariat. Which is very bad for the liver. .Others
are bitten with a mania for District work, Ghuznivide coins or
Persian poetry; while some, who come of farmers' stock, find that
the smell of the Earth after the Rains gets into their blood, and
calls them to "develop the resources of the Province."^A type of cell that makes neurohormones (chemicals that are made by nerve cells and used to send signals to other cells) and releases them into the blood.

These men
are enthusiasts. Pinecoffin belonged to their class. He knew a
great many facts bearing on the cost of bullocks and temporary
wells, and opium-scrapers, and what happens if you burn too much
rubbish on a field, in the hope of enriching used-up soil. All the
Pinecoffins come of a landholding breed, and so the land only took
back her own again. Unfortunately--most unfortunately for
Pinecoffin--he was a Civilian, as well as a farmer. Nafferton
watched him, and thought about the horse. Nafferton said:--"See me
chase that boy till he drops!" I said:--"You can't get your knife
into an Assistant Commissioner." Nafferton told me that I did not
understand the administration of the Province.

Our Government is rather peculiar. It gushes on the agricultural
and general information side, and will supply a moderately
respectable man with all sorts of "economic statistics," if he
speaks to it prettily. For instance, you are interested in gold-
washing in the sands of the Sutlej. You pull the string, and find
that it wakes up half a dozen Departments, and finally
communicates, say, with a friend of yours in the Telegraph, who
once wrote some notes on the customs of the gold-washers when he
was on construction-work in their part of the Empire. He may or may
not be pleased at being ordered to write out everything he knows
for your benefit. This depends on his temperament. The bigger man
you are, the more information and the greater trouble can you
raise.

Nafferton was not a big man; but he had the reputation of being
very earnest." An "earnest" man can do much with a Government.
There was an earnest man who once nearly wrecked . . . but all
India knows THAT story. I am not sure what real "earnestness" is. A
very fair imitation can be manufactured by neglecting to dress
decently, by mooning about in a dreamy, misty sort of way, by
taking office-work home after staying in office till seven, and by
receiving crowds of native gentlemen on Sundays. That is one sort
of "earnestness."

Nafferton cast about for a peg whereon to hang his earnestness,
and for a string that would communicate with Pinecoffin. He found
both. They were Pig. Nafferton became an earnest inquirer after
Pig. He informed the Government that he had a scheme whereby a very
large percentage of the British Army in India could be fed, at a
very large saving, on Pig. Then he hinted that Pinecoffin might
supply him with the "varied information necessary to the proper
inception of the scheme." So the Government wrote on the back of
the letter:-- "Instruct Mr. Pinecoffin to furnish Mr. Nafferton
with any information in his power." Government is very prone to
writing things on the backs of letters which, later, lead to
trouble and confusion.

Nafferton had not the faintest interest in Pig, but he knew that
Pinecoffin would flounce into the trap. Pinecoffin was delighted at
being consulted about Pig. The Indian Pig is not exactly an
important factor in agricultural life; but Nafferton explained to
Pinecoffin that there was room for improvement, and corresponded
direct with that young man.

You may think that there is not much to be evolved from Pig. It
all depends how you set to work. Pinecoffin being a Civilian and
wishing to do things thoroughly, began with an essay on the
Primitive Pig, the Mythology of the Pig, and the Dravidian Pig.
Nafferton filed that information--twenty-seven foolscap sheets--and
wanted to know about the distribution of the Pig in the Punjab, and
how it stood the Plains in the hot weather. From this point
onwards, remember that I am giving you only the barest outlines of
the affair--the guy-ropes, as it were, of the web that Nafferton
spun round Pinecoffin.

.Pinecoffin made a colored Pig-population map, and collected
observations on the comparative longevity of the Pig (a) in the
sub- montane tracts of the Himalayas, and (b) in the Rechna Doab.^US Pig Gene Mapping Coordination Program http://www.animalgenome.org/pig/ Links provided to swine gene databases, swine gene maps, and species comparative gene maps.

Nafferton filed that, and asked what sort of people looked after
Pig. This started an ethnological excursus on swineherds, and drew
from Pinecoffin long tables showing the proportion per thousand of
the caste in the Derajat. Nafferton filed that bundle, and
explained that the figures which he wanted referred to the Cis-
Sutlej states, where he understood that Pigs were very fine and
large, and where he proposed to start a Piggery. By this time,
Government had quite forgotten their instructions to Mr.
Pinecoffin. .They were like the gentlemen, in Keats' poem, who
turned well-oiled wheels to skin other people.^They also develop pressure overload hypertrophy following banding of the great vessels of the heart like other species (Swindle, 1998) .

But Pinecoffin was
just entering into the spirit of the Pig-hunt, as Nafferton well
knew he would do. He had a fair amount of work of his own to clear
away; but he sat up of nights reducing Pig to five places of
decimals for the honor of his Service. He was not going to appear
ignorant of so easy a subject as Pig.

Then Government sent him on special duty to Kohat, to "inquire
into" the big-seven-foot, iron-shod spades of that District. People
had been killing each other with those peaceful tools; and
Government wished to know "whether a modified form of agricultural
implement could not, tentatively and as a temporary measure, be
introduced among the agricultural population without needlessly or
unduly exasperating the existing religious sentiments of the
peasantry."

Between those spades and Nafferton's Pig, Pinecoffin was rather
heavily burdened.

Nafferton now began to take up "(a) The food-supply of the
indigenous Pig, with a view to the improvement of its capacities as
a flesh-former. (b) The acclimatization of the exotic Pig,
maintaining its distinctive peculiarities." Pinecoffin replied
exhaustively that the exotic Pig would become merged in the
indigenous type; and quoted horse-breeding statistics to prove
this. The side-issue was debated, at great length on Pinecoffin's
side, till Nafferton owned that he had been in the wrong, and moved
the previous question. When Pinecoffin had quite written himself
out about flesh-formers, and fibrins, and glucose and the
nitrogenous constituents of maize and lucerne, Nafferton raised the
question of expense. By this time Pinecoffin, who had been
transferred from Kohat, had developed a Pig theory of his own,
which he stated in thirty-three folio pages--all carefully filed by
Nafferton. Who asked for more.

These things took ten months, and Pinecoffin's interest in the
potential Piggery seemed to die down after he had stated his own
views. But Nafferton bombarded him with letters on "the Imperial
aspect of the scheme, as tending to officialize the sale of pork,
and thereby calculated to give offence to the Mahomedan population
of Upper India." He guessed that Pinecoffin would want some broad,
free-hand work after his niggling, stippling, decimal details.
Pinecoffin handled the latest development of the case in masterly
style, and proved that no "popular ebullition of excitement was to
be apprehended." Nafferton said that there was nothing like
Civilian insight in matters of this kind, and lured him up a bye-
path--"the possible profits to accrue to the Government from the
sale of hog-bristles." There is an extensive literature of hog-
bristles, and the shoe, brush, and colorman's trades recognize more
varieties of bristles than you would think possible. After
Pinecoffin had wondered a little at Nafferton's rage for
information, he sent back a monograph, fifty-one pages, on
"Products of the Pig." This led him, under Nafferton's tender
handling, straight to the Cawnpore factories, the trade in hog-skin
for saddles--and thence to the tanners. .Pinecoffin wrote that
pomegranate-seed was the best cure for hog-skin, and suggested--for
the past fourteen months had wearied him--that Nafferton should
"raise his pigs before he tanned them."^Pathophysiology of skin flaps raised on expanded pig skin.

Nafferton went back to the second section of his fifth question.
How could the exotic Pig be brought to give as much pork as it did
in the West and yet "assume the essentially hirsute characteristics
of its oriental congener?" Pinecoffin felt dazed, for he had
forgotten what he had written sixteen month's before, and fancied
that he was about to reopen the entire question. He was too far
involved in the hideous tangle to retreat, and, in a weak moment,
he wrote:--"Consult my first letter." Which related to the
Dravidian Pig. As a matter of fact, Pinecoffin had still to reach
the acclimatization stage; having gone off on a side-issue on the
merging of types.

THEN Nafferton really unmasked his batteries! .He complained to
the Government, in stately language, of "the paucity of help
accorded to me in my earnest attempts to start a potentially
remunerative industry, and the flippancy with which my requests for
information are treated by a gentleman whose pseudo-scholarly
attainments should at lest have taught him the primary differences
between the Dravidian and the Berkshire variety of the genus Sus.^When reproducing studies between laboratories, caution should be taken in comparing hemodynamics between different breeds.

If I am to understand that the letter to which he refers me
contains his serious views on the acclimatization of a valuable,
though possibly uncleanly, animal, I am reluctantly compelled to
believe," etc., etc.

There was a new man at the head of the Department of
Castigation. The wretched Pinecoffin was told that the Service was
made for the Country, and not the Country for the Service, and that
he had better begin to supply information about Pigs.

Pinecoffin answered insanely that he had written everything that
could be written about Pig, and that some furlough was due to
him.

Nafferton got a copy of that letter, and sent it, with the essay
on the Dravidian Pig, to a down-country paper, which printed both
in full. The essay was rather highflown; but if the Editor had seen
the stacks of paper, in Pinecoffin's handwriting, on Nafferton's
table, he would not have been so sarcastic about the "nebulous
discursiveness and blatant self-sufficiency of the modern
Competition-wallah, and his utter inability to grasp the practical
issues of a practical question." Many friends cut out these remarks
and sent them to Pinecoffin.

I have already stated that Pinecoffin came of a soft stock. This
last stroke frightened and shook him. He could not understand it;
but he felt he had been, somehow, shamelessly betrayed by
Nafferton. He realized that he had wrapped himself up in the
Pigskin without need, and that he could not well set himself right
with his Government. All his acquaintances asked after his
"nebulous discursiveness" or his "blatant self-sufficiency," and
this made him miserable.

He took a train and went to Nafferton, whom he had not seen
since the Pig business began. He also took the cutting from the
paper, and blustered feebly and called Nafferton names, and then
died down to a watery, weak protest of the
"I-say-it's-too-bad-you-know" order.

Nafferton was very sympathetic.

"I'm afraid I've given you a good deal of trouble, haven't I?"
said he.

"Trouble!" whimpered Pinecoffin; "I don't mind the trouble so
much, though that was bad enough; but what I resent is this showing
up in print. It will stick to me like a burr all through my
service. And I DID do my best for your interminable swine. It's too
bad of you, on my soul it is!"

"I don't know," said Nafferton; "have you ever been stuck with a
horse? It isn't the money I mind, though that is bad enough; but
what I resent is the chaff that follows, especially from the boy
who stuck me. But I think we'll cry quite now."

Pinecoffin found nothing to say save bad words; and Nafferton
smiled ever so sweetly, and asked him to dinner.

From LoveToKnow 1911

PIG (a word of obscure origin, connected with
the Low Ger. and Dut. word of the same meaning, .bigge), a
common name given to the domesticated swine of agricultural use.^Swine, Sus scrofa domestics, are widely used in research and testing.

(For the zoology, see Swine.) British breeds of pigs are classified as
black, white and red. In some places, notably Wales and Gloucester, a remnant of a
spotted breed lingers; and a large proportion of common pigs, often
parti-coloured, are mongrels. .The white breeds are liable to sun-scald, and black pigs (like black
men) are much better adapted than white to exposure in strong
sunlight, conforming to the rule that animals in the tropics have
black skins.^The pig as an experimental animal in plastic surgery research for the study of skin flaps, myocutaneous flaps and fasciocutaneous flaps.

.The Large Whites may have in the skin a few blue spots
which grow white hair.^Substances that attach to CD134 on the surface of T cells (a type of white blood cell) may help the T cells grow and kill more cancer cells.

.The head is long, light in the jowl, and
wide between the eyes, with long thin ears inclined slightly
forward and fringed with long fine hair.^A thin layer of tissue that is part of the middle layer of the wall of the eye, between the sclera (white outer layer of the eye) and the retina (the inner layer of nerve tissue at the back of the eye).

.The neck is long, but not
coarse, the ribs are deep, the loin wide and level, the tail set high, and the
legs straight and set well outside the carcase.^It usually starts in the pelvis (between the hip bones), the shoulder, the ribs, or at the ends of the long bones of the arms and legs.

Pigs of this breed are very prolific, and
they may be grown to enormous weights - over 11 cwt. alive.

The Middle Whites are built on a smaller scale than the
Large Whites. They are shorter in the heads and legs, and fuller at
the jowl, thicker and more compact in the body. .The sows are quite
as prolific as those of the Large White breed, and, as their
produce matures earlier, they are much in demand for breeding
porkers.^A slowly progressing cancer that starts in blood-forming tissues such as the bone marrow, and causes large numbers of white blood cells to be produced and enter the blood stream.

The Small White pigs are beautifully proportioned. .The
head and legs are very short, and the body short, thick and wide;
the jowl is heavy, the ears pricked, and the thin skin laden with
long silky, wavy, but not curly, hair, whilst the tail is very
fine.^A shunt (a long, thin tube) is placed in a ventricle of the brain and threaded under the skin to another part of the body, usually the abdomen.

A deficiency of lean meat is a common characteristic of the
breed, which is almost extinct.

The above three breeds were designated Yorkshire Whites, and are still so named at
times. .The Middle White, formed by crossing the large and the small
breeds, is not so symmetrical as the parent stocks, and the type is not uniform.^A milky-white fluid that forms in the small intestine during digestion.

The Lincolnshire Curly Coated or Boston pig is a local breed
of great size and capacity for producing pork. It is very hardy and
prolific, but somewhat coarse in the bone. It has an abundance of long curly hair, a
short face and a straight nose,
and the ears, not too long and heavy, fall over the face. It
crosses well with the Large White, the Large Black and the Berkshire.

The Large Black breed, which vies with the Large White
breed for size, and is probably its superior as a bacon pig, has only since 1900 received national
show-yard recognition; but there is ample evidence that, with its
characteristic whole black colour with a mealy hue, length, fine hair and lop ear, the Large Black existed in the south of England for generations. It has
been continuously and carefully bred in Cornwall, Devon, Essex and Suffolk, and from these centres it has rapidly
spread all over the country. Large Blacks are exceedingly docile,
and the ears, hanging well
forward over the eyes, contribute materially to a quietness of
habit which renders them peculiarly adapted to field grazing. On
account of their hardiness and disposition to early maturity they
have proved valuable for crossing purposes. The Large Black Pig
Society was incorporated in 1899.

BERKSHIRE BOAR.

LARGE WHITE SOW.

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The Berkshire is a black pig with a pinkish skin, and a
little white on the nose, forehead, pasterns, and tip to the tail.
It has a moderately short head with heavy jowl, a deep, compact
carcase, and wide, low and well-developed hind-quarters, with heavy hams. The skin carries
an abundance of fine hair. The Berkshire is an early-maturity breed
which has been somewhat Middle White Boar.

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Small White Boar.

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Large Black Sow. Tamworth Boar.

English Breeds Of Pig, from photographs of F. Babbage. The
comparative sizes of the animals are indicated by xxi. 594. the
scale of reproduction of the
photographs.

inbred, and is not so hardy and prolific as most breeds. The
boars cross well with common stock. It merits the most credit in
raising the quality of Irish pigs. In America it is in the front rank for numbers and
quality as a lard-hog. There it
often grows to be a larger and finer animal than it is in
England.

The Small Black or Black Suffolk was produced
from the old Essex pig by crossing with the Neapolitan. It
resembles the Small White, except that the skin is coal-black in colour, and the coat of hair is not
usually profuse. .The Small Black, moreover, is rather longer, and
stands somewhat higher, whilst it yields more lean meat than the
Small White.^The number of mature and immature abnormal white blood cells in the bone marrow and blood is higher than normal, but lower than in the accelerated or blast phase.

The Tamworth
is one of the oldest breeds of pigs. It is hardy, active and
prolific, and nearly related to the wild boar. The colour is red or chestnut, with at times darkish spots on the
skin. .The head, body and legs are long, and the ribs deep and flat.^It usually starts in the pelvis (between the hip bones), the shoulder, the ribs, or at the ends of the long bones of the arms and legs.

Originally a local breed in the districts around the Staffordshire town
from which it takes its name, it is now
extensively bred, and highly valued as a bacon pig. (W. FR.; R. W.)
In America nearly all the breeds may be classified as lardhogs.
Bacon-pigs fed on Indian corn
degenerate into lardhogs, run down in size and become too small in
the bone and less prolific by inbreeding.

The Poland-China, the most popular breed
in the
United States, is thus degenerating. .It is a black pig like the
Berkshire, but has short lop-ears, a more pointed, straight nose, a
more compact body, and more white markings.^A tough, flexible tissue that lines joints and gives structure to the nose, ears, larynx, and other parts of the body.

.It is a breed of mixed
blood, and is believed to have originated from the "Big China" pig
- a large white hog with sandy spots, taken to Ohio in 1816, and blended with
Irish graziers in 1839, and with a breed known as Bayfields, as
well as with Berkshires.^The Pig Journal on CD http://www.thepigsite.com/books/b195/pig-journal-on-cd-volumes-1-59 Originally known as the Proceedings of the UK Pig Veterinary Society.

In Iowa
the Berkshire is a combined lard and bacon pig in high favour.

.The Duroc Jersey or Duroc,
of a red or cherry-red colour
- not sandy or dark - is the most popular pig in Nebraska and equal to any
other in Iowa.^The kidneys of the pig are more like humans in anatomy and function than most other species of animals.

It is a large prolific lard-hog, easily making 300
lb in eight months. It has gained rapidly in popularity since the
beginning of this century, and is spreading to other centres.

The Chester
White, named from Chester county, Pennsylvania, is one of the four leading
breeds of lard-hogs in America. It is of mixed origin and bears a
strong family resemblance to the Lincolnshire curly-coated pig. The
early
English ancestors, the breed of which is not on record in
America, were most probably of Lincoln origin. The sow is a prolific breeder
and good mother, weighing, when mature but not fat, 450 lb - the
boar averaging 600 lb, and barrows at six to eight months 350 lb.
At Vermont Station, in a 127
days' test, Chester Whites made an average gain of 1.36 lb and
dressed 84.5% carcase, and they can gain fully 1 lb of live weight
for 3 lb of grain
consumed.

Management

The brood sow should be lengthy and of a prolific strain, known to milk well. She is moderately fed and put to a boar
of her own age when large enough, i.e. seven to eight
months old. She remains in a state of oestrum for about three days,
and if not pregnant comes in heat again in three weeks. Breeding
swine, male and female, run most of their time at pasture and
receive a liberal allowance of green food or raw roots. The
period of gestation is sixteen weeks. Six to eight pigs are reared
of the first litter, and ten
to twelve afterwards. Many brood sows are fattened to greatest
profit after the second or third litter. .Two litters are produced
in one year, as pigs are usually weaned at two months old, and the
sow will take the boar at from three days to a week after the pigs
are removed, according to condition.^The gestation period of 112-114 days allows sows to have up to three litters per year.

A convenient sty to hold five or six pigs has a southern aspect,
and consists of a covered compartment and outer court, each to ft.
square. When the animals are fed outside the inner court is kept
clean and dry, and there the pigs lie. The labouring man's pig is
his bank, and is fed on scraps, small
potatoes and waste products. In connexion with cheese dairies pigs are largely fed on sour whey
thickened with mixed meal produced
from any or all of the grains or pulses, the choice depending upon
the market price. Food may with advantage be cooked for very young
pigs; but, with the exception of potatoes, which should never be
given raw, roots and meals are best given uncooked. Meal mixed with
pulped roots for a few hours improves in digestibility, and a
sprinkling of salt is an
improvement. Meal derived from leguminous seeds makes the flesh
firm and improves the quality. Fattening pigs are fed three times a
day and supplied with coal-ashes or a few handfuls of earth. Of the
fatted live weight of a pig 83% is butcher's carcase, and 91% of
the increase from 100 to 200 lb is carcase. From 3 to 5 lb of meal
consumed results in an increase of i lb of live weight in a pig,
which is the most economical meat producer on a farm. Concentrated and digestible foods give best
results, a pig has a small stomach. Fjord's Danish experiments show that
for fattening pigs i lb of ryeor barley-meal is equivalent to 6 lb of skim-milk
or 12 lb of whey, and i lb of meal equivalent to 8 lb of mangolds
or 4 lb of potatoes.

No.
.47, U.S.A. Bureau of Animal
Industry); J. Long, The Book of the Pig (1906); F. D. Coburn, Swine
Husbandry (1904); R. Wallace, Farm Live Stock of Great Britain (4th
ed., 1907); DouglasEncyclopaedia
(1906); C. S. Plumb, Types and Breeds of Farm Animals (1906) the Herd Books of the Breed Societies,
and Reports of the Agricultural Departments of Great Britain, Canada and the United States.^All swine commonly used in research and testing are Sus scrofa domestics, whether they are farm or miniature breeds.

^Most of the animals are small domestic farm breeds, but miniature swine such as the Yucatan, Hanford and Gottingen are widely used for chronic studies where the significant growth of the domestic breeds would be an issue.

(uncountable) The ediblemeat of such an animal; pork.^Review of Swine Genetics in the U.S. http://www.nsif.com/Conferences/1995/review.htm Article by Larry D. Young, USDA-ARS, U.S. Meat Animal Research Center Clay Center, Nebraska.

(engineering) A
device for cleaning or inspecting the inside of an oil or gas pipeline, or for separating
different substances within the pipeline. Named for the pig-like
squealing noise made by their progress.

Unfortunately, the pig sent to clear the
obstruction got lodged in a tight bend, adding to the problem.

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